Breaking ground at Motshegofadiwa Primary School (South Africa)

Breaking ground at Motshegofadiwa Primary School (South Africa)

The winner in the ADOPT-a-School category was Johannesburg based Kate Otten Architects with their proposed three step strategy to restructure Motshegofadiwa Primary School to greatly enhance its purpose as an education facility for the community of Hamanskraal.

Last week saw the official groundbreaking ceremony at the school.

The work of Kate Otten Architects, based in Parkhurst Johannesburg, has won awards from several bodies and has been exhibited and published locally and internationally.

The Architecture for Social Gain Awards proved such a success that Saint-Gobain has continued and expanded the competition to the rest of the African continent. The Africa Architecture Awards is set to become Africa’s largest architecture awards programme with the aim of celebrating design excellence and promoting an increased awareness of the role and importance of architecture across Africa.

“We would like the teachers and learners of Motshegofadiwa to know that we are here to stay – our commitment is long term. We look forward to our continued involvement with this school” says Richard Napier, CEO for Sub-Saharan Africa at Saint-Gobain.

Motshegofadiwa is classified as a primary school (Grade R – 7) that accommodates 960 learners. Located in Stinkwater, 58km north of Pretoria in Gauteng, the school community is characterised by extreme poverty and high levels of unemployment. Despite the lack of physical and educational resources, the school is run by an excellent management team and enthusiastic and passionate educators.

Saint-Gobain, the world leader in the habitat and construction markets, designs, manufactures and distributes building and high-performance materials, providing innovative solutions to the challenges of growth, energy efficiency and environmental protection.